Archive for the ‘naughty dog’ Category
UNCHARTED 2 Giveaways Coming Soon, Anniversary Event Recap
Posted by Arne Meyer in naughty dog, PlayStation Games, PS3, uncharted 2 on October 22nd, 2010
Last weekend, we held our first Anniversary Event to celebrate one year since the release of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves, and I think we’d be understating things to say it was anything but a rousing success! All of us at Naughty Dog wanted to thank everyone (again) who went online to participate in our Anniversary Event – getting the Anniversary Drake skin, along with mega-cash, in return – and made it such a special day for the Dogs to spend with our fan community.
We pulled a few amazing stats from the Anniversary Event we thought you’d like to know:
- We recorded over 2.5 man years of game time in a period of just 24 hours(1 game that lasts 20 minutes = 20 minutes, regardless of how many players in the game)
- Those 2.5 years came from 1,079,850 player games (10 players in a game = 10 player games)
- We also saw 12,376,755 kills during our Anniversary Event (that’s strictly pvp – NPC kills in co-op games aren’t recorded)
- Everyone benefited from the 5x cash bonus and no cash cap, accumulating a collective $49 BILLION in in-game cash – which would rank UNCHARTED 2 about #70 in the list of countries by GDP
- I only completed 66% of my 24 hour straight personal challenge (total #FAIL)
Last week also saw the release of the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Game of the Year Edition (psst! you can order your copy here or visit your local brick and mortar), although a few of our eagle eyed community members noticed that our most recent DLC releases – the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Sidekick Skins Pack and UNCHARTED 2 Dynamic Theme wasn’t included as part of the value-priced, DLC-packed retail release.
To rectify this, we’re going to hold a few giveaways really soon to give our fans – release-day veterans or GOTY Edition newbs – a shot at snagging both these DLC releases! Follow @PlayStation and @Naughty_Dog on Twitter and keep a close watch next week for more details!
UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Game of the Year Edition coming October 12th
Posted by Arne Meyer in naughty dog, PlayStation Games, PS3, uncharted 2 on September 28th, 2010
It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a whole year since UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves was released! Since then we’ve sold over 3.8 million copies worldwide of UNCHARTED 2, hosted more than 125 million online multiplayer matches and won more Game of the Year Awards than we know what do with.
Not exactly a bad problem to have.
To commemorate UNCHARTED 2 as the definitive Game of the Year in 2009, we’re proud to reveal the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Game of the Year Edition!
On October 12, 2010, copies of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Game of the Year Edition will start hitting retailers all over North America. For just $49.99, you’ll get the regular retail Blu-ray of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves along with a “super voucher” for the PlayStation Network Store that lets you download ALL of the following DLC content:
- PlayStation Heroes Skin Pack
- UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune Multiplayer Pack
- UNCHARTED 2 Siege Expansion Pack
- Currency Multiplier which grants Double XP up to level 10 in Multiplayer
- Golden Guns option for the AK-47 and the 92FS 9mm pistol for use in Multiplayer
- Early access to “Revenge” Booster – you still have to purchase it with in-game cash!
- UNCHARTED: Eye of Indra – Motion Comic Bundle (which includes Episodes 1-4)
- UNCHARTED: Eye of Indra – Rika Raja and Daniel Pinkerton Character Skins
- UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves – Avatar Pack 1
- UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves – Avatar Pack 2
- UNCHARTED Avatar Pack 3
- UNCHARTED Avatar Pack 4
- Pinball Heroes – UNCHARTED for the PSP
Sparing me the need to bust out a calculator, I’m told the total value of all the content we’re including in our Game of the Year Edition comes in at more than $35.00 if you purchased it all separately — and some of the content isn’t even available for purchase separately, so the bonus just got even better.
Releasing our Game of the Year Edition in the same week as our one-year anniversary of release is not without benefits – we have set aside Saturday, October 16, 2010, as the date to join us online for some awesome anniversary festivities!
We’ll be running a special one-day only playlist which compiles a “Best of…” selection of gametypes we’ve chosen from previous episodes of “The Lab.” We’ll also have plenty of Dogs online nearly all day in that playlist to play against. But that’s not all – we’re not ready to reveal everything yet, so please check back on NaughtyDog.com in the next few weeks. We’ll be posting more details on all the awesomeness we have in store for our fans!
And last but not least, head on over here to check out the IGN exclusive interview with our very own Evan Wells and Justin Richmond for an inside look at how they are feeling a year since launch, multiplayer stats, accolades, and more!
August 17th: New UNCHARTED 2 Multiplayer Skins and Dynamic Theme
Posted by Arne Meyer in naughty dog, PlayStation Games, PS3, uncharted 2 on August 12th, 2010
While this may not come as a surprise for some of you – as part of Naughty Dog’s continuing support of our multiplayer community, we’re glad to say we’ve got some new UNCHARTED 2 DLC on the way real soon!
Like, next week soon.
On Tuesday, August 17, the UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Sidekick Skins pack will be available for purchase with the PlayStation Store. After the last two sets of multiplayer skins we released, we heard that you wanted more Sully, more Chloe and more Elena (among many, many other things) – and that’s exactly what we put into the pack. Not to neglect the villains team, we also threw in two enemy characters from UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune – Dillon and Mac – who complete the set we started with Blain and Dutch.
The UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Sidekick Skins Pack includes the following multiplayer characters:
- Heist Chloe
- Borneo Chloe
- Borneo Sullivan
- UDF Sullivan
- Winter Sullivan
- Wetsuit Elena
- Dillon
- Mac
On the same day, we’re also releasing an UNCHARTED 2 Dynamic Theme for your PS3. As you can see from the screenshots and the embedded video, the Dynamic Theme features a scene from Chapter 15 – Train Wrecked, when a critically injured Nathan Drake is high up in the mountains, stumbling through the snow away from the train wreck he survived to recover the Phurba Dagger.
The UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Sidekick Skin Pack will be released on the PlayStation Store on August 17 for only $2.99 for the 8 skins. The UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Dynamic Theme will be released on the same day $2.99 as well.
UNCHARTED 2 “The Lab” Weekend: Sniper Extermination Starts Now!
Posted by Arne Meyer in naughty dog, PlayStation Games, PS3, uncharted 2 on June 25th, 2010
If you aren’t already planning on participating in the “The Lab” this weekend — or haven’t in previous weekends — log in to UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer and check out the limited-time-only “The Lab” playlist in competitive matchmaking.
This weekend’s episode of “The Lab” is Sniper Extermination. All players start with only Dragon Sniper rifles and there are no other weapons available on the map. The goal of the game is similar to our Elimination gametype — once you or your opponent has been dispatched, you’re out of the round until all opponents on either team are wiped out. The team with any or the most remaining players left alive wins that round. Best of five rounds wins the entire match. No Boosters are active for Sniper Extermination, so high-level players and teams who have unlocked Situational Awareness won’t be at an unfair advantage of those who haven’t unlocked Evasion yet.
We’ll be running Sniper Extermination on the following multiplayer maps:
- The Sanctuary
- The Train Wreck
The WarzoneThe Plaza- The Lost City
“The Lab” is open from Friday, June 25, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?) through Monday, June 28, at 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?).
You can stay up to date with future “The Lab” dates and gameplay parameters through this sticky post on the Naughty Dog community forums or by checking back on the “the lab” tag on the Naughty Dog blog. We will be posting the schedule for “The Lab” weekends for July early next week.
Hopefully very few of you are asking “What is The Lab?” If you are, head over to this post on NaughtyDog.com which gives you a bit more background on what to expect.
One more thing. Do us a favor and log in to UNCHARTED 2 multiplayer next weekend for a little something special. We’ll reveal next week what we’ve got in store for our multiplayer community.
UNCHARTED 2: New Multiplayer Playlist “The Lab,” and new PSN Avatars
Posted by Mick Perona in Featured Post, naughty dog, PlayStation Games, PlayStation Network, PlayStation Store, PS3, uncharted 2 on May 27th, 2010
Hey Everyone, Are you itching for some more multiplayer mayhem? Well, you’re in luck!
This weekend – May 28 to June 1 – we’re introducing a new playlist that will mix things up and maybe, possibly lead to updates or additions to the existing playlists in competitive Matchmaking. We’re calling this playlist “The Lab.”
We’ll be running “The Lab” Playlist roughly every other weekend for the foreseeable future.
During each weekend “The Lab” is active, we’ll be running a playlist featuring one or more custom-tuned gametype variations from the tons of variables we can tweak in our multiplayer gameplay settings.
Here’s the current schedule and description for the first event in our “The Lab” Playlist series:
May 28 – June 1
2 vs. 2 Team Deathmatch
Grab a partner for this small- to medium-size map mow-down. You’ve got 15 minutes to rack up 25 kills, or more than the other team, to prove your small-team superiority. I’m going to recommend now that you’re going to want pick a reliable teammate you want to play with over the weekend…
Of course, to commemorate the launch of “The Lab” Playlist program will be a Double Cash Weekend!
Starts: Friday, May 28, 10:00 AM PDT
Ends: Tuesday, June 1, 10:00 AM PDT
As with our previous Double Cash Weekend, the per match cash limit has also been raised to $150,000 maximum per match.
Head on over to NaughtyDog.com for the full schedule of the “The Lab” playlists, as well as to learn where you can chat in the forums to give your feedback on these new events, as well as get information on updated play schedules.
BRAND NEW PSN AVATARS AVAILABLE NOW!
And that’s not all; don’t miss out on our brand new UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves avatar bundles for PSN we released this Tuesday on the PlayStation Store! We are so excited to be able to bring these new avatars for your PSN ID’s, we know how badly you’ve been wanting to update your avatars, and now you can show off your UNCHARTED pride in style!
The UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Avatar Pack #1 includes Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher, Victor Sullivan, [Cameraman] Jeff, and Karl Schafer. And Pack #2 delivers Chloe Frazier, Tenzin, Zoran Lazarevic, Harry Flynn, and the Phurba Dagger!
Hurry over to the PlayStation Store and download these avatars for $0.49 cents each, or grab the avatar bundles to collect all 10 and save some moolah!
Sneak Peek: The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves
Posted by Mick Perona in naughty dog, PlayStation Games, PS3, uncharted 2 on April 26th, 2010
As you may have seen on NaughtyDog.com, the developers of the 2009 smash hit UNCHARTED 2 have released details around the upcoming art book, The Art of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves from Ballistic Publishing.
As described in Naughty Dog’s post, the Limited Folio edition is available in only 200 printed copies, but includes elite extra details beyond the standard paperback and the leather-bound Special Edition. The Limited Folio Edition of the art book is bound in black suede leather with gold-embossed cover art, and a matching hand-crafted, black suede leather-bound presentation case with a ribbon. Also included is a certificate of authenticity that have been individually numbered and hand signed by Evan, Amy, Robh and Erick. Each book is 272 pages and contains over 180 pages of concept art, and over 80 pages of production art and character models.
All three editions will be available this month and can still be pre-ordered NOW at Ballistic Publishing.
We gave Greg Miller at IGN a few of the first copies to show off and the result can be found here. For an in-depth sneak peek at the art in the book, as well as an in-depth look at each of the three print editions, visit the Ballistic Publishing site for an interactive book tour.
UNCHARTED 2 Siege Expansion Pack Coming This Thursday, Double Cash Weekend Returns!
Posted by Arne Meyer in dlc, naughty dog, PlayStation Games, PS3, uncharted 2 on April 21st, 2010
The day is nearly here for our UNCHARTED fans and the multitudes who have been awaiting a new co-op game type — The UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Siege Expansion Pack will be on sale when the PlayStation Network Store updates on Thursday, April 22nd, and will set you back only $5.99.
Look for the PlayStation Store Update blog post on Thursday to know when The Siege Expansion Pack is available for purchase.
As we announced just two weeks ago, the Siege Expansion Pack is our biggest DLC release to date: two new maps, six new multiplayer skins, one new co-op game type and 11 new online-only Trophies.
Do yourself a favor and read the full rundown of what’s included in the pack, check out the screenshots, and watch the gameplay and map fly-through videos. You won’t be disappointed.
The most significant portion to the Siege Expansion Pack is the new Siege co-op game type. You can read impressions of Siege from these IGN and GameSpot reviews of the Siege Expansion Pack. Since we started testing Siege internally, up through last week’s sessions with reviewers, I’ve really enjoyed the complexities of Siege. It’s not as simple as defending pre-defined locations against waves of NPCs: Between the different vulnerabilities of each new location and the lack (or abundance) of weapon pickups, you’ll find yourself testing out interesting new strategies to maximize your points and cash.
Apart from the Siege co-op game type, I’m really excited for the two new maps. We’ve spent our time post-release wisely and learned a lot about how to build multiplayer maps that not only offer more verticality, but make it an essential part of the navigation and domination of a particular map. I love both maps, but it is the massive verticality and need to use your traversal skills that make The Highrise one of my favorite maps. Ever. Of course, the potentially lethal helicopter assault and very real danger of jumping off the buildings to your doom takes the awesome to new heights. See what I did there?
We also revealed the contents of Title Update 1.07 this morning, prior to the release of the update worldwide. Title Update 1.07 includes the following:
- Players can now choose between Hero skins for Co-op Arena matches only
- Additional spawn system changes to enhance spawn point update effectiveness
- Gameplay changes to prevent “airwalk” exploit
- Updates to map geometry collision detection to improve prevention of players attempting to leave normal multiplayer map boundaries
And now, I’ll leave you with this announcement:
To celebrate the release of the Siege Expansion Pack, this weekend marks the return of Double Cash Weekend!
Starts: Friday, April 23, 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?)
Ends: Monday, April 26, 10:00 AM PDT (what time is that in my city?)
PAX East 2010: The “Naughty Dog LIVE – Game Design with the Dogs” Panel
Posted by Arne Meyer in Developer Corner, Events, Inside PlayStation, naughty dog, paxeast10, uncharted on April 2nd, 2010
We’ve all returned – and mostly recuperated – from our trip to Boston this past weekend to attend PAX East. It was both a pleasure and an honor to make it out for the inaugural PAX on the East Coast, not only to attend the show, but also to participate in panels. Everyone at Penny Arcade deserves all our gratitude for putting together such a smooth first –- and completely sold out PAX in Boston. We’re looking forward to PAX East 2011!
We weren’t expecting the massive turnout for our panel on Saturday, “Naughty Dog LIVE: Game Design with the Dogs.” When I got to the Naga Theater to setup for our panel, the line waiting to get in was insane – and it was a whole half-hour before our panel was due to start. I heard some people had been waiting in line for over an hour at one point. It was sad to hear that PAX Enforcers had to turn away a ton of people waiting to get in by the time they started to fill the theater. There is no doubt that it was awesome for us to see that kind of turnout, but it was also a little bittersweet that we couldn’t get in everybody who wanted to attend.
Our panel focused on showing the inner workings of how game design works at Naughty Dog, led by game designers Richard Lemarchand, Jacob Minkoff and Justin Richmond. We picked a spot in UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune that had a minor narrative hole – between Chapters 3 and 4 – and used that as the basis to explore a fictional Chapter 3.5 we titled “Strip Search.” The first half of the panel was spent laying out the objectives for the design of this chapter and the type of structure and pacing that was important for us to maintain so that everything would fit neatly into the UNCHARTED universe in look and feel.
Jacob fired up Autodesk Maya for the second half of the panel and loaded an example blockmesh level for Chapter 3.5 that he sketched out in his spare time over the couple of weeks leading up to PAX East. It was Jacob’s responsibility on the panel to pitch his level to Richard and Justin, explain his game design choices, and receive feedback to demonstrate our collaborative and iterative design process. We also stopped briefly and turned to our audience to let them give us their ideas on how to solve a specific design challenge within the level.
Unfortunately we started to run out of time towards the end, because we wanted to talk about how to turn this level into one that works in our multiplayer game and also open up the floor one more time to get suggestions from our audience. Perhaps we can get to that another time if we ever get a chance to do a similar panel.
Once it was all over, we met with a lot of our fans in the audience that came up to chat. We’re really grateful to have such awesome fans and we owe you all thanks for attending our panel and coming up to say hi!
If you were at PAX East and weren’t able to get into our panel – and I know there were a lot of you – you can read a recap of our panel on Joystiq. In addition, we should have the full video of our panel available on NaughtyDog.com sometime in the next couple of weeks. Check back later on to check it out!
UNCHARTED: Eye of Indra Motion Comic Bundle, Rika and Pinkerton Skins Launch on April 1
Posted by Arne Meyer in Comics, naughty dog, PlayStation Games, PS3, PSN, uncharted 2, uncharted eye of indra on March 17th, 2010
Since the UNCHARTED: Eye of Indra motion comic series was released on the PlayStation Store late last year, we’ve gotten a ton of questions asking if the Rika Raja and Daniel Pinkerton multiplayer skins – which were made available in Europe as part of a bundle – would soon be available to our community in the US and other parts of North America.
We can let you know today that the answer is YES!
When the PlayStation Store updates on Thursday, April 1 (we’re not joking), the UNCHARTED: Eye of Indra Bundle will be available for purchase for $2.49.
What if you have already purchased all or some of Eye of Indra Episodes 2, 3, and 4? Fear not, we have you covered.
Here’s what’s going to happen:
- On Thursday, April 1, UNCHARTED: Eye of Indra Episodes 2, 3, and 4 will be TEMPORARILY removed from the Store
- ANYONE who purchased ALL THREE Episodes (#2, 3, and 4) prior to 12:01 AM, April 1, will receive an e-mail on April 8 containing a PSN voucher code good for the FREE download of the UNCHARTED: Eye of Indra Bundle INCLUDING the Rika and Pinkerton multiplayer skins.
*IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to receive the email with your voucher code, you MUST make sure that your PSN account has a valid and working email address associated with your PSN ID. You must also make sure that you have the option to receive marketing communications checked.
- If you want the Rika and Pinkerton skins and have NOT purchased all 3 individual episodes yet, you MUST do so before all the episodes are temporarily removed on April 1.
- Starting April 1, the ONLY way to receive the Rika and Pinkerton skins is to purchase the UNCHARTED: Eye of Indra Bundle. Buying individual episodes after this date will not make you eligible to receive the voucher code for the Bundle and skins.
- The individual episodes will return to the Store on April 15 for $0.99 each.
We have one last bit of good news – the UNCHARTED: Eye of Indra Bundle will also be released on April 1 in Canada and Mexico, via your local PlayStation Store.
We’re really excited to finally be able to share the Rika Raja and Daniel Pinkerton skins with our fans in North America. Many thanks are also in order to SCEA for putting in all the extra effort to make sure everyone who have already purchased all of the Eye of Indra episodes will receive the Rika and Pinkerton skins!
Let us know if you have any questions in the comments below and we’ll do our best to answer as many of them as we can with as little bold text as possible.
Naughty Dog at GDC – We Want Your Questions!
Posted by Arne Meyer in Developer Corner, Events, gdc10, naughty dog, q-games on March 3rd, 2010
It’s almost here! On March 9 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco the Game Developer’s Conference officially kicks off and Naughty Dog plans to have a big presence. Many of our folks will be participating in numerous sessions, panels, and tutorials. For the full list, please see below, but first let’s talk about one session in particular.
On Thursday, March 11 from 4:30 – 5:30 PM PST, Naughty Dog’s co-lead Game Designer, Richard Lemarchand, will be participating in a session with Baiyon, graphic artist and composer of Q-Games’ PixelJunk Eden, and they want to take your questions to be answered during the panel!
The session will take form as a lively discussion on the inherent similarities of artistic endeavor and will encompass conversations on Richard’s and Baiyon’s games, and the nature of creativity and process in games. We’re hoping to use a number of questions submitted by the community to lead the conversation. If you have a question you’d like to have answered during this panel, please submit it in the comments below and we’ll do our best to get it answered at GDC. We welcome all kinds of questions, serious, fun, etc…we’re looking for variety! Get your questions in before Friday; we’ll close all submissions after that.
Finally, if you’re planning to attend GDC, we hope to see you in the audience or around Moscone!
Naughty Dog at GDC
Thursday (March 11, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Among Friends – An UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves Post-Mortem
Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog)
Room 134, North Hall
Thursday (March 11, 2010) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
Behind the Scenes: UNCHARTED 2’s Unique Cinematic Production Process
Josh Scherr (Cinematics Animation Lead, Naughty Dog), Amy Hennig (Creative Director, Naughty Dog, Inc.)
Room 303, South Hall
Thursday (March 11, 2010) 4:30pm — 5:30pm
Micro or Massive: It’s Fricking Tough to Achieve a Vision
Baiyon Tomohisa Kuramitsu (Graphic Artist/Composer, PixelJunk/Eden), Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog)
Room 135, North Hall
Friday (March 12, 2010) 9:00am — 10:00am
GDC Microtalks 2010: Ten Speakers, 200 Slides, Limitless Ideas!
Richard Lemarchand (Game Designer, Naughty Dog), Ian Bogost (Associate Professor, The Georgia Institute of Technology), Chaim Gingold (levity lab), Gary Penn (Guru, Denki), Sam Roberts (Festival Director, indiecade.com), Margaret Robertson (Consultant and writer, Lookspring), Kellee Santiago (President and Co Founder, thatgamecompany), Suzanne Seggerman (President, Games for Change), Jesse Schell (ETC Carnegie Mellon, Schell Games), Jane Pinckard (Business Development, Foundation 9 Entertainment)
Room 134, North Hall
Friday (March 12, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Creating the Active Cinematic Experience of UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves
Bruce Straley (Game Director, Naughty Dog), Neil Druckmann (Co-Lead Designer, Naughty Dog)
Room 305, South Hall
Friday (March 12, 2010) 4:30pm — 5:30pm
UNCHARTED 2 Art Direction
Erick Pangilinan (Art Director, Naughty Dog), Robh Ruppel (Art Director, Naughty Dog)
Room 306, South Hall
Saturday (March 13, 2010) 10:30am — 11:30am
UNCHARTED 2 Character Pipeline: An In-depth Look at the Creation of U2’s Characters
Richard Diamant (Lead Character Artist, Naughty Dog Inc.), Judd Simantov (Lead Character Technical Director, Naughty Dog Inc)
Room 135, North Hall
Saturday (March 13, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Animation and Player Control in UNCHARTED: Drake’s Fortune and UNCHARTED 2: Among Thieves
Travis McIntosh (Lead Programmer, Naughty Dog Inc.)
Room 135, North Hall
Saturday (March 13, 2010) 1:30pm — 2:30pm
Getting Noticed: Why You Need an Online Portfolio and How to Make One
Jacob Minkoff (Game Designer, Naughty Dog Inc)
Room 306, South Hall
Saturday (March 13, 2010) 3:00pm — 4:00pm
UNCHARTED 2: HDR Lighting
John Hable (Programmer, Naughty Dog)
Room 305, South Hall